Living in a small mountain community surrounded by wilderness comes with a certain responsibility. We are stewards of this landscape and the creatures that call it home. It is easy to rally behind charismatic wildlife like bears, wolves, and elk, but there is a much smaller member of our community that needs our support too, and they are not asking for much: bats.
If you’ve ever sat outside at dusk in Golden, you’ve probably seen them darting across the evening sky. Until recently, I never realized just how important they are to our local ecosystem.
Despite a rainy evening, community members gathered in Nicholson to learn more about one of the region’s most misunderstood mammals during a bat education event led by local bat biologist Laura Kaupus, alongside Joyce and Natalie from the Golden Bat Ambassadors.
Speaking beside a bat box at a private residence, affectionately nicknamed “Hotel Transylvania,” Kaupus shared fascinating facts about the bats that call the Columbia Valley home and highlighted their importance to both local ecosystems and human communities.
One of the biggest surprises for many attendees was learning just how unique bats are among mammals.
“Bats are the only actively flying mammal,” Kaupus explained. “Other mammals, like flying squirrels, can glide, but they can’t actually fly.”
Kaupus also challenged common assumptions about the lifespan of these small creatures. While many people compare bats to mice or other small mammals that live only a few years, bats can live for decades.
“They’re around 30 to 40 years old, and there’s one in Alberta that was captured that was 46,” she said. “They’re very, very long-lived mammals for their size.”
Their longevity allows bats to pass knowledge between generations. According to Kaupus, female bats teach their young important skills, including migration routes, communication patterns, and foraging behaviour. She explained that bats even develop their own cultures, with information passed from mothers to pups over time.
Perhaps the most impressive fact of the evening involved the appetite of the area’s most common species, the Little Brown Bat.
“If I were to say a Little Brown Bat, which is our most common species here, how many mosquitoes do you think a Little Brown Bat could eat in one hour?… It’s about 600.”
Those numbers add up quickly. A colony of bats can consume thousands of insects every night, helping control mosquito populations and other insect pests. For a community that knows all too well the annoyance of mosquito season, bats provide a valuable and entirely natural form of pest control.
While some bats make use of bat boxes and attics, Kaupus noted that most species prefer natural habitats away from people. Bat boxes primarily attract Little Brown Bats, which seek warm, safe spaces to raise their young. This is one reason habitat loss remains a concern. As mature forests are removed, bats lose the natural roosting sites they depend on, making it harder for some populations to thrive.
Deforestation is not the only challenge facing these remarkable animals. Kaupus also spoke about one of the greatest threats to bat populations across North America: White-nose Syndrome. The disease is caused by a fungus that grows on bats during hibernation, appearing as a white, powdery growth around their noses, wings, and ears. The fungus disrupts hibernation, causing bats to wake more frequently and burn through the fat reserves they need to survive the winter.
Since it was first discovered in North America in 2006, White-nose Syndrome has killed millions of bats and continues to spread westward. While the disease has had devastating impacts on species such as the Little Brown Bat, populations in regions like Golden are being closely monitored as researchers work to better understand the long-term effects and support conservation efforts.
So what can we do to help?
One of the simplest ways for individuals to get involved is by participating in a bat count.
The BC Annual Bat Count is a citizen science program that helps track local bat populations by monitoring maternity colonies, where female bats gather to raise their young during the summer. These counts provide biologists with valuable information about how populations are changing over time and have become especially important as bats face growing threats.
Taking part is simple. Volunteers visit a known bat roost around sunset on a warm, dry evening and count bats as they emerge to feed for the night. Counts are ideally conducted four times over the summer: twice in June before young bats can fly, and twice more between mid-July and early August when pups begin leaving the roost with their mothers.
Observers record the number of bats they see using a hand clicker or counting app and submit their results at the end of the season. Participants are reminded not to enter bat roosts, handle bats, or access private property without permission. More information, including instructions and data sheets, can be found at bcbats.ca.
The organizers of the Nicholson gathering finished the evening with their own bat count. Despite less-than-ideal weather conditions, they were rewarded with a few winged visitors. More
importantly, the turnout demonstrated a genuine community interest in learning about bats and supporting their survival.
What stood out most to me was the passion of Kaupus, Joyce, and Natalie. Their enthusiasm for bats was contagious, and it was clear they care deeply about protecting these often-overlooked animals. Anyone interested in becoming involved can contact the Golden Bat Ambassadors at golden.bat.ambassadors@gmail.com to learn more.
Sometimes stewardship means standing up for the little guy. Bats may be small and often overlooked, but they play an important role in the health of our local ecosystem. Living in a place as wild as Golden comes with a responsibility to care for all the creatures that share this landscape, not just the ones that are easiest to admire.
